Thursday, October 07, 2010

Vehicle safety bill moves ahead


A private member's bill that would amend and strengthen the Motor Vehicle Safety Act and give Transport Canada the power to recall vehicles received a boost from all federal parties Wednesday night.

The Conservatives, Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois unanimously voted to send Bill C-511 to the standing committee on transport, infrastructure and communities.


The bill would also force companies to submit more safety-related information to Transport Canada in the form of quarterly reports and would spell out what constitutes a defect — a definition that is lacking in the present legislation.

Liberal MP Joe Volpe, the bill’s author, said the parties came together to support the bill because consumer safety trumps politics.

“I’m hoping that now that we’ve got all-party agreement on the principle of the bill that it will move along quickly and that everybody will see the wisdom of putting this legislation into effect as quickly as possible,” Volpe said. “It’s about consumer protection. And I can’t imagine that the government of Canada will not want to be associated with a bill that says consumers are first.”





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